Presented at the 2012 Mises Institute Supporters Summit. Recorded at Callaway Gardens, Georgia, on 26 October 2012. Includes an introduction by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., and the awarding of the 2012 Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for Lifetime Defense of Liberty.

The state’s creation of patent and copyright interests doesn’t prevent innovations, but it does erect hurdles that discourage research. The “traditional enemies of innovation [are] inertia and vested interest,” factors contributed to by the government practice of giving inventors protection from...